The invention is directed to a system for bracing dental implants or natural tooth roots to secure artificial teeth and an implantation method associated therewith.
A common implant system utilizes a bar which is secured to implant heads by screw-retained sockets. Clips or riders carried by a denture snap-secure the denture to the bar to allow the denture to be snapped in and out of a patient's mouth. U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,937 in the name of Hans Bosker is exemplary of this type of implant system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,858 in the name of Ralph Silverman discloses another implant system in which a plurality of implant screws have releasably snap-secured thereto cap members which are bridged by a metal rod or bar. Several teeth of the denture are hollowed to conform to and seat upon the cap members thereby holding the denture in place in a patient's mouth.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,003 in the name of John M. Symington et al. discloses a dental implant for connecting an artificial tooth or a dental bridge to a person's jaw. The dental implant includes a tapered threaded implant body, an abutment or head keyed nonrotatably thereto, a connecting screw for coupling the implant body to the head and a retaining screw. A single tooth or a plurality of teeth can be anchored in the jaw of a patient by snapping recesses in the tooth or denture upon the implant abutment or head. In the case of a plurality of artificial teeth forming the denture, the complement of teeth are secured to each other in an integral fashion through a metal framework which is then connected to the abutment or head by a retaining screw which is inserted into the head through a bore of the associated artificial tooth. The bore in each tooth so affixed to the rod or metal framework is then filled with a plastic to provide a suitable surface on the tooth.
Other typical dental implants and associated accessories are far too numerous to describe in detail, but further typical examples can be found in the following U.S. patents and the patents cited therein, namely, Philippe Lonca (U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,688), David B. Rosen (U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,442), Stanley E. Ross (U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,619) and Leonard I. Linkow (U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,917).